Truly Dreadful Film

Really Surprised!

From my favorite movies..

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This movie is simply about the sanctity of marriage although the script and direction make it hard to follow, especially with the excessive religious overtones, flashbacks and side stories. A cheating wife married to a doctor has an affair with another doctor. After about a year into their affair, they decide to leave their spouses for each other. Before the wife can tell her husband she's leaving him, he has an accident and dies. The wife shows no emotion over the event although confused about what she wants to do next. The husband's body disappears and it becomes increasingly evident that he's alive. The wife is suspicious, confused, worried....almost going through the whole spectrum of emotions throughout the movie. Realizing her husband is in fact alive or somehow miraculously risen from the dead, she is confronted by him. She continues her affair while seemingly looking for answers as does her husband who has several serious physical reactions to his wife's thoughts, words and interaction with her lover. Finally after completing a promise she made during an overly religious vision she had at the start of her affair with the doctor, her husband is miraculously healed and she realizes that she truly loves her husband and no longer wants to leave him. I rated this low simply because the script and director made it so difficult to follow the story and see it for what it was.

All the other reviews panning this flick are fair warning. It is so preposterous you won't believe you are wasting your time until the last 7 minutes. When the Mrs. walks down the hill with the young priest, the whole movie evaporates into a finalé not unlike a B-flat minor version of the Sound of Music. The wrap up is pap. Imagine watching Jaws but at the end, Jesus floats down and lifts everybody out of the boat and whisks them to safety, with the little town becoming the next Shrine to the Ascension. The end was so totally out of character with the story that has been told to that point. And it was as embarrassing to watch as Tammy Faye Baker.

Nicolas Roeg ? He directed the classic supernatural thriller DON`T LOOK NOW didn`t he ? Strangely the aforementioned movie was broadcast on BBC television at the weekend which did tonight`s screening of COLD HEAVEN no favours what so ever . You see it`s impossible not to compare COLD HEAVEN with DON`T LOOK NOW since they both have the same director and the same structure and for the first third of COLD HEAVEN I thought they also had the same plot except a dead husband had been substituted instead of a dead child , in fact my mind was set on this movie revolving around a grief stricken widow seeing her late husband running around Venice wearing a red anorak . This doesn`t occur but about one third of the way through the running time there`s a massive plot twist and despite being an essential plot twist it`s not explained in any great depth . In fact very little is explained in COLD HEAVEN which ruins the movie People have mentioned the rather poor production values of COLD HEAVEN and it`s impossible not to notice them . If I didn`t no different I would have thought this was a TVM since it`s got a made for television feel to it right down to white capital letters in the title sequence . Roeg also tries to inject art house pretentions via spoken thought processes but again this doesn`t help the movie at all . One can`t help feeling Roeg should have put all his effort into the plot twists which are totally flat on screen Cheap production values , disinterested directing and a really bizarre premise and screenplay make for a bad movie

I fear that with this movie and the stultifying Two Deaths, that Roeg has slipped semi-comatose into semi-retirement.I just hope that he can produce one final great classic that will sit alongside, Bad Timing, Performance, Eureka,Walkabout and The Man Who Fell To Earth in his mighty cannon.